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 Posted: Mon Sep 19, 2016 10:10 am
❧Who: Rowan, Rhys & Anita, Cruz
❧When: Midday
❧Where: The Crystal Map, Barton Town
❧Weather: Cloudy with hints of sunshine
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Posted: Tue Sep 20, 2016 9:06 pm
It had been a few days since Rowan had personally stamped and sent out the invitation. Rhys had insisted that it was better to call (or text even), after all the info sheet already provided the number, but Rowan found that approach a bit too cold. She had him looking up and down Barton Town for a directory before it occurred to him that he could just dial the information line and ask there…
He glanced at his great aunt from over his shoulder to make sure she wasn't looking when he brushed a small pile of dust under the carpet. He could get it some other day, he thought. She had told him they would be expecting special visitors today and that was enough to get her up and cleaning too.
Now that she was done prepping the tea tray the witch took a pause to survey the area. Everything was as it should be and with a satisfied nod she turned to the large plant right beside her.
"Oh my, you're starting to look a bit down," she told it petting the big yellowing leaf. Now that autumn was starting to announce its presence it was time to put the plants outside so they could continue their cycle. This one still had some time before it went to sleep. "A few weeks more," she said thoughtfully.
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Posted: Fri Oct 14, 2016 8:34 am
To say they were surprised to receive such a lavish invitation was an understatement. Cruz had almost mistaken it for a special event from Lab 305 itself, with all of the fanfare a fancy wax stamped envelope had; Anita, on the other hand, wondered if it had been sent to the wrong apartment until she cross referenced the call sheet the lab provided and the name stuck out like a sore thumb. Its contents, while presented in similar fashion, were much more down to earth: an invitation simply to come and chat as fellows involved with the lab.
"I wonder if these were sent to everyone?" Anita mused aloud. Cruz could only shrug but his curious smile hadn't left since they opened the envelope.
By the time they arrived, it became all too clear that the invitation was not addressed to everyone with the lab. Anita then found herself wondering why it had only been extended to them while Cruz, at her side, shrugged it off in his eagerness.
"S'it a store?" he asked while examining the exterior, "A crystal store? A map store?"
"I don't know," Anita chuckled, uncertain as she lead the way to the front door. "Let's see."
A few soft knocks came, the first handful of notes from the Super Mario Bros. theme.GlassKitteh SO SORRY for how long that took!!
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Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2016 9:47 am
Rhys had finished his sweeping and had been swinging his feet from the high stool he sat on. He perked up at the sound of the knocking, some of it ringing a bell in his memory, and jumped down. He rushed to the door that held their business hours on CLOSED and opened it. The bell above the frame jingled.
Rowan checked on the teapot and was glad to find she would be able to get her guests situated before it was ready. "Come in, come in!" she ushered them in with a welcoming smile. "I'm glad to see you," she grabbed Anita by the shoulders and placed two pecks on each cheek. "I hope the journey here was not too troublesome," she moved on the Cruz and repeated her greeting. "Well met, both of you." She guided them over to the modest sofa and beckoned at it if they would like to sit.
Rhys had been grinning the whole time. He was excited to meet people from the same program too but even more, he now had the chance to glimpse at what his new sibling might look like. Interesting didn't quite cut it and he tried to not be rude and not stare at the ribbon, but it was hard not to. "I'm Rhys," he waved that them not one for traditional greetings.
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Posted: Mon Oct 24, 2016 11:42 am
To say Anita was startled at suddenly being held and kissed was an understatement. Her posture stiffened, eyes wide, and only when the woman let go and moved on to Cruz did she manage a nervous smile.
"Thanks," she laughed quietly. "It, uh, it wasn't too bad."
Her companion, much differently, was eager to hold on to Rowan's shoulders in kind and lean in to each kiss. His eyes were bright, skin warm and sun kissed, and he beamed after the woman as she hurried around through the room. "S'nice to meet you, Miss Bluestone."
They trailed after her, Cruz more outwardly eager than Anita who dragged her feet as she rubbed one of her cheeks. She still smiled, a little bewildered, but once seated it became easier for her to relax. That was when they noticed another body among them and she nearly startled again. Cruz waved and gave Rhys a pleasant smile.
"Hi, Rhys! I'm Cruz. This is Nita." She smiled and waved in kind. The crocodile raevan leaned forward in his seat and lowered his voice slightly to whisper a little loudly at the boy. "Do you work here? What kinda store is it?"
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Posted: Thu Oct 27, 2016 6:49 pm
Rowan was not blind to the sudden flinching. She gave Anita a warm smile in response to her nervous one. The witch was pleasantly surprised at Cruz's reaction so different from his guardian and a merry chuckle escaped her.
Rhys on the other hand was all too happy to fill them in on what they sold here. He beamed at the raevan and came a little bit closer.
"Nice to meet you and yes, I do!! I help open and put things up. Sometimes we make candles too. As for what we sell well a little bit of everything for the different magical needs," he recited with a proud grin. "There's dried flowers, animal bones, spellbooks, incense," the young boy kept on listing off items on his fingers. "-and a looot of satchels. A lot of people ask for something to help them sleep, or something that helps them win the lottery and the love of their life," he giggled at the last bit. "And rocks," he added as an afterthought. Now that he had crept closer to Cruz he leaned in and whispered, "Do you eat people?" with a very serious frown on his face.
"The kettle will whistle at any moment now," she informed Anita. As if on queue the teapot started to whistle and as the pressure grew the more urgent it became. "Pardon me I won't be long," she walked over to the small stovetop and with a towel removed the teapot off the fire and set it on a tray.
She had originally planned on lemongrass tea, but seeing as Anita could use something different she started to mix other herbs into the pot. Chamomile and valerian root to help calm nerves, and some parts of lemon balm too. She added a spoonful of brown sugar for taste and stirred it a few times. Finally she lifted the tray and made her way over to her guests. She lined their cups and filled it a bit more than halfway in case they wanted to add more sugar to it.
"Feel free to enjoy the cookies as well," she said serving herself last. She left the cup alone for the time being, letting it cool. "So how is this lab business treating you?"
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Posted: Wed Jan 04, 2017 10:10 am
Anita smiled with a bit more certainty as Rowan informed her of the tea's status, and laughed as her prediction came true. "No problem. Thank you."
The boy's enthusiasm was all too contagious to Cruz, his eyes and smile widening as he was positively enraptured with all of the fun magical things they had here. His hands clasped together quickly when Rhys mentioned people coming to this particular shop to find the love of their life. The croc quickly turned to Anita, excitement in his throat, but before he could say anything on the matter it was Rhys who had a question for Cruz and it was a question that let all of the breath he had been holding out in a confused sputter.
"No! I don't eat people!" he whispered through a rough chuckle. Both hands came up to cover his face for a moment as he laughed at what he hoped was a politely low volume. "I eat kisses." Cruz uncovered his face and pressed two fingers against his smiling lips to demonstrate.
His guardian couldn't help but laugh and rest her own head in her hands. The scents brewing from the kitchen drew her back up, however, and as Rowan returned. "Oh wow, thanks. This all looks great." Anita took her cup and blew across the surface gently but did not take a sip just yet. Beside her, Cruz took up a cookie in one hand and the tea in his other. "It's been good. Pretty quiet?" With a glance to Cruz for confirmation, Anita paused; he didn't seem to notice as his eyes were closed from the enjoyment of his cookie, and she laughed. "It's um -- well, I would say it's a little out of the norm but--" she cast another glance around the shop and smiled, then gave a sheepish laugh, "--I think you guys are better prepared than I was, at first. How about you? You were accepted kind of recently, right?"
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Posted: Wed Jan 04, 2017 1:14 pm
Rhys looked at him oddly. Was the Raevan being serious? “Well I’m glad you don’t eat people I was about to tell you I don’t have much meat anyways,” he was trying to hide his grin with no success. “Do you need a lot of kisses everyday?” Would X amount of kisses equal a full meal? Or would one be enough to call it a day? He looked pensive.
“Thank you. These are perfect comfort snacks for when it’s about to rain but it looks like the sun will win today which is just as fine. The flora could use it before autumn.” She shifted forward to grab a cookie, careful to not spill her tea. “It doesn’t seem too long ago, but judging by the calendar yes it was only recently,” she smiled kindly. “I’m looking forward to having another pair of hands help around the shop, my joints start complaining after a while. Rhys here will be starting school In a few months after being homeschooled for so long. Having had three children certainly does help with the preparation. I do remember my first one and let me tell you no amount of books could have helped,” she let out a merry chuckle.
“A diet of cookies and kisses doesn’t seem so bad,” she said after listening to bits of their conversation. The witch returned her attention to Anita. “I can only imagine what my Raevan will start eating once they get to that age,” she looked at the surface of her tea with a slight wrinkle to her brow. My Raevan had a nice ring to it. Almost like my child, but not quite the same implications. With any luck they wouldn’t actually eat crumbs off the floor or anything like that. “How much influence do their souls have?” She looked at Cruz with a curious eye. He behaved and looked like a normal teenager, magic factors aside.
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Posted: Fri Mar 31, 2017 1:12 pm
The croc couldn't help but laugh at Rhys' curiosity. He waved his hands loosely through the air and shook his head with another chuckle, just to make sure he was clear that there were absolutely no people in his diet -- even stringy ones. It wasn't often he got many technical questions about his feeding method, and for a moment all Cruz could do was give another faint laugh. "Kinda," he answered pensively. He scratched his cheek and glanced to the side in thought. "Depends on where I get 'em? How long an' how many." There were a lot of variables that were often left unspoken.
While Rowan explained her situation, Anita nodded. Her eyes were attentively set upon the older woman's as she sat, leaned forward with her arms resting against crossed legs and a cookie in one hand that she nibbled quietly. "Oh man, I can imagine." Anita laughed with a hand over her mouth, politely. She knew her own mother had enough trouble just dealing with herself and she wasn't even a problem child. She shook her head, smiling with a mouthful of cookie just as Rowan commented on Cruz's dietary preferences. The next question caught her at a bit of a surprise and Anita was quick to finish chewing and take a sip of tea before she answered.
"It depends? Everyone's a little different. I haven't met everyone, so I can't say for sure, but um-- well," Anita laughed and brushed some of her bangs aside, "Cruz has the soul of a crocodile but he's not aggressive, not violent, it shows up more physically than it does in his behavior? But none of the raevans I've met with animal souls act animalistic at all, really." They were people, first and foremost, and Anita nodded firmly about that notion. "He's got the teeth, claws, he can make some weird noises--" as if on command, Cruz tilted his head back and opened his mouth wide to let out a low reptilian growl that faded until he laughed and covered his face, "--but he's mostly a big dork, you see." Anita smiled, feeling a little more comfortable.
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Posted: Sat May 13, 2017 11:05 am
“I can only imagine what will come out of gold flowers and an insect. Maybe something like a fancy scarab,” Rowan took a sip of her tea. “It seems they grow up too quick regardless of form. At least this one is keeping some humor for the long run!” she swished around her cup to gather the last bit before sipping it down. Now that only flakes of plant remained she looked at the curiously.
“The earth kingdoms finds all kinds of way to communicate,” she said thoughtfully rotating the cup. “This one is a grateful one. Also warns about something happening in the Summer. But something could be anything from a thunderstorm to an unexpected heat wave,” the witch shrugged and set her cup down. “It’s difficult to give one's self a reading, but not quite so for others. If you’re done maybe I can take a peek,” she winked and turned to face Rhys’ general area to see what they were up to.
“We don’t have any kissing charms… that’s just gross, but we do have love charms,” he scooped up a few of the lucky coins with red thread. "And candles and ointments. You can’t control other people’s feelings, but maybe you can increase their affection,” he beamed at having recited all that word for word as the book had said.
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Posted: Thu Jun 08, 2017 12:24 pm
Anita's smile turned wry at the mention of an insect soul. She stared into her cup of tea as she drank, eyes a little wider than before. "Maybe," she forced a small chuckle before Rowan continued speaking. As the elder woman began to speak of cryptic things, things within her cup, Anita lifted her chin in attempt to see what Rowan saw. She knew what tea reading was but never took the opportunity to understand it beyond the base concept, even when another Lab associate she was aware of performed them.
"Oh, um," Anita looked into the dregs of her tea and finished what liquid was left, "sure. Thank you." She handed over the teacup carefully, a slight flush of nervousness across her cheeks. "I've never had a reading before." She let out another soft laugh. "By the way... was it a scarab you caught? For the soul? Or--" Bugs were definitely not her idea of a good time.
At Rhys' declaration, Cruz gave a mock gasp. Kisses were not gross! Or maybe he misunderstood? Were kissing charms gross somehow? He supposed it depended on what they did, whether they improved the quality or enjoyment of a kiss or if they enticed people to kiss each other, he couldn't be sure. "Oh, like--! Like a game!" Cruz clapped gently at the mention of increasing affection. That made matters much more simple, when you could hand someone a gift or charm and they would feel more comfortable instantly. As Rhys showed off a few of the coins, Cruz rose from his seat and floated beside him to examine them more closely. "What do they all do? How do you use 'em?" His eyes darted around to everything in the boy's hands and around the nearby shelves, his smile growing with child-like wonder.
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Posted: Sat Jun 17, 2017 7:54 pm
"Oh dear me I can't believe I forgot to mention it! No not a scarab, rather its cousin from a different family, the roach," the witch looked thoughtful.
"When I first saw it I started to wonder how useful a common house cockroach could be in the shop. I was wondering if they could have wings, then surely extra arms wouldn't be too out of the question?"
Rowan shrugged and set her cup down. She straightened her back and took hold of Anita's cup turning it this way and that. "I had cast a spell you see, to ask for the best soul that aligned with my specific interests and the roach was chosen." She peered at the cup for what seemed a full minute or two and then glanced at the young woman with a serious look on her face.
"Well my dear," she started with a gentle tone. "It seems that there's a storm brewing, but as you may know with summer storms it comes down hard and fast and leaves just as quickly. A brief period to strengthen your foundation you could say," the witch set the cup down. "Experience is what shapes us," she added after a moment.
Rhys' head snapped to turn to look at the raevan. "Like a game yes!" his eyes twinkled with newfound excitement. "Do you play shooters? RPGS?" he gave Cruz three coins to hold and cleared his throat to begin explaining.
"Ok so you just find the other person's zodiac sign and pick the symbol that corresponds to it that way the magic works better. Then you just gift it! And they can do whatever but if they throw it out then nothing happens. Now here's the interesting part, it doesn't matter where they leave it. They could use it as a phone charm, or hang it on a wall, whatever, everytime they see it they will think fondly of you!"
The young boy grinned at him. "Cool huh?" he crossed his arms and looked as if he had just told Cruz the world's greatest discovery. In the distance the low rumble of thunder echoed.
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